Starbucks and a Funeral

Today was a sad, hard day. My boyfriend’s grandfather passed, his last male, family role model. Today was the funeral so I asked my boss if it was ok to turn in some vacation time and go. Of course, he said yes.

So I had a pretty sleepless night worrying about my boyfriend and, in general, the whole affair was pretty exhausting. I went to the funeral, then lunch, and then headed off to work. On the way back, knowing it would take an extra 15- 20 minutes, I stopped at Starbucks for a venti salted, caramel, soy mocha at 130 degrees as well as QuickTrip becasue my tire was low on air and needed its weekly refill.

Here is the question, do you think those extra non-funeral minutes are ethical since I did not originally ask for the extra time? Perhaps only the QuickTrip minutes are ok since it was needed…? However, I sort of felt like that deflated, saggy tire and Starbucks can make even the worst day a little brighter… I’ll leave it to you.

Obviously an Idiot

If you have never heard of Ted Talks, I encourage you to Google and enjoy! Miss Kathryn Schultz gives a talk “On Being Wrong.” It is genius. Anyway, it talks about the assumptions we place on others when they do not agree with us. Since this is related, and funny, I thought I’d share.

So when people don’t agree with you:

1. Ignorant Assumption: Obviously they do not have all the facts. After you enlighten them with the “truth” they will change their minds.

When that does not work…

2. Idiocy Assumption: Okay, they have the fact but are too stupid to put them all together.

When that does not work it leads to the final assumption…

3. Evil Assumption: They have all the facts and are smart, so obviously they are, with malice, acting against the good and truth you are representing.

I find myself often following these assumptions. For instance: my aloof, slob, conniving, lazy co-worker. We both work in the same department and, unfortunately, since we work opposite shifts, have to share the same work space. Now, students who come in see this mess she leaves on the desk and I mean MESS… ALL THE TIME. I usually spend 10-15 minutes every time she leaves the desk cleaning up after her. (our shifts do overlap a few hours) This mess includes used Kleenex, dried noodles on the keyboard, random papers everywhere, chip crumbs, etc. You get the picture.

I have confronted her about this on multiple occasions and she says that she works best in this “environment.” OMG! Are you bleeping kidding me?!? Okay, I’m not sure if she is bright enough to make it to the evil assumption…

This leads me to my scenario. It is a little different because I have not done this potentially naughty act yet… I am thinking of taking a picture each time she leaves the desk and presenting irrefutable, photo evidence to my boss. Now this may seem drastic but I have gone to him MULTIPLE times about this issue to no avail. Mostly though, I want to get her in trouble though, rather than  the more important issue of showing a presentable space to the students.

Every day I think that there is no way I could possible like her less, but then it happens.

So, on naughty scale, 1-5? I will also take alternate suggestions on how to handle this problem. I hope b*tch slapping is one of my choices… just sayin’.